Category Archives: Ending Analysis

Dun dun dun, I am ready to take on the un-thinkable! I’ve been searching all day online to see if anyone else has done any analyses on this movie just to see what others have understood of this movie. So far, nothing. Anyway, so here’s my take on the movie.

I just want to say that I really did enjoy this movie. It had moments that made me cringe, but that is the kind of movie this is. It has a dark, gloomy and looming feeling. It’s not a suspense or a thriller. It’s a biography of a deeply disturbed woman. The classic story of a femme fatale from beginning to end. Despite being the good-natured person you are, you find yourself rooting for Susanna throughout the movie. Mentally urging her on to kill her next husband and feeling a sigh of relief at the death of her last no-good, waste-of O2 of a husband.

This is the list of her husbands that she marries and kills off, along with their fatal flaw:

1. Edwin Rodrigues (Neil Nitin Mukesh) – The crippled army major who is verbally abusive and overly possessive.

2. Jimmy Stetson (John Abraham) – The musician who steals his music and is a drug addict, along with issues of infidelity.

3. Wasiullah Khan (Irrfan Khan) – The physically abusive poet.

4. Nicolai Vronsky (Aleksandr Dyachenko) – The Russian spy with a second wife and children in Russia.

5. Keemat Lal (Annu Kapoor) – The sex addicted police inspector.

6. Dr. Modhusudhon Tarafdar ( Naseeruddin Shah) – The Bengali doctor who tries to kill her for her money.

What’s that you say? That’s only 6 murders? Wait for it, will you!

At the end of this movie, I’m sure a lot of people walked out thinking “What the hell did I just watch?”

My take on the general theme of this movie is that her husbands, each one of them, embodied one of the 7 deadly sins as seen in Christianity. I haven’t read the original short story (Susanna’s Seven Husbands) by

Ruskin Bond so I’m not sure if the adapted characters in the movie are exactly as he describes them in the book or not. But, as far as the movie goes, each husband was portrayed in such a way that one of the 7 Deadly Sins was embedded into the personality of the character.

1. Edwin is Vanity. He is so proud of being an esteemed Army major that he cannot stand for his wife to do things that he does not approve of. She is required to be a dutiful and submissive wife. She must do as she is told and not argue. His vanity is further proven when Susanna expresses that their problems with conception are not her fault.

2. Jimmy the Musician is Gluttony. Though he is a man of many faults, his drug addiction is what pushes Susanna over the edge to finally murder him.

3. Wasiullah Khan, the poet, is Wrath. I think this one speaks for itself. Despicable. The contrast should be made here that anger is a hot emotion and Wasiullah’s death is by burial in the cold snow.

4. Nicolai is Envy. This one is a little different because the Deadly Sin is not seen in her husband, rather, in Susanna. She envies that he has another wife who has borne him children. I was the saddest about seeing this husband be murdered. I felt he deserved a second chance and that he may have truly loved her. I felt that she didn’t give him enough of a chance to explain himself. By this point of the movie, Susanna had begun to descend in to madness.

5. Inspector Keemat Lal is Lust. Self-explanatory. This is the relationship Susanna was least emotionally invested in. Death by Viagra.

The final sin that we’re missing here is Despair. Susanna is Despair throughout the movie and it is despair that leads her to become a nun at the end of the movie. Based on the overall theme of the movie, I think it is safe to conclude that the 7th murder is of her old self. The Susanna that searched high and low to find a partner to share her life with and be complete with. The death of her faithful maid in the fire goes hand in hand with this because it was Susanna’s Despair that caused her to light the fire. The skeleton of her maid was used to prove that Susanna had died in the fire.

Naseeruddin Shah and Neil Nitin Mukesh did a great job in this movie. Of course, Priyanka Chopra as well. Not an easy job to play the anti-heroine of a movie.

I felt that there was a lot of the movie that was left up to the audience to figure out and I would’ve liked a little more detail on Susanna and her motives. I would’ve liked to see this movie be done backwards. Starting from the ending of her becoming a nun to the last murder and moving into the first murder and at the very end of the movie, explaining her childhood and the loss of her parents and how that affected her psychologically. That would’ve made a better and more conclusive movie to watch. Even better, maybe completely chop up the movie into bits and show a scene of Susanna talking to one husband, then walking down the aisle with another, then listening to poetry from another, then killing another, and finally ending the movie with somehow tying it all together and making sense of it. That way, the audience would figure it out and watch the movie a second time knowing what to look for and to get a full understanding of it. Still, a good effort but there was much room for improvement. This movie definitely hasn’t done well at the Box Office because you can’t expect people to get such a detailed understanding from this movie by just watching it. However, it will definitely go down in the books as a commendable effort by Priyanka Chopra.

I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago and was completely blown away. Get this, my reason for being blown away? The last 2 sentences of the movie. If it wasn’t for that, I would have mentally filed it into my “Decent Movies” folder. As a reminder, the last 2 sentences were: “I did it. I was perfect.” These final few words give the viewer a small window into this deranged ballerina’s psyche and a little understanding of her rationale.

For the record, I try to steer away from reviewing or analyzing American movies because, well, usually it’s already been done 10 times over. I mean, if I was to analyze, say, Inception, wouldn’t you just want to roll your eyes? *Rolls eyes* But this movie, was just amazing and I just had to get my 2 cents in. The reason I was even more amazed is because I had heard all this hype and excitement for this movie. It had already been nominated for 5 Academy Awards and won tons of other awards by the time I got around to watching it. Usually, in the past, by the time I get around to watching a movie that have been over-hyped have always been a major let down for me. (Yea, I’m usually pretty late on the Hollywood movie scene, haha). Maybe it’s because the hype causes you to raise that bar for what qualifies for a “Good Movie” or maybe because the movie really isn’t that great. What ever the reason, this movie definitely did exceed my expectations. After all, before watching the movie, I also had my pre-conceived notions of ‘It’s a movie about a Ballet, how good can it get?’ Boy, was I wrong!

Getting back to the analysis of the movie. Let’s go over some supporting actor analysis and then focus on the main character of the movie.

The mother, Erica (Barbara Hershey), is the overly-possessive stage mother who is obviously forcing her failed dreams of becoming a lead ballerina onto her daughter. The hideous drawings in her room of the mysterious girl (we’re never told who the girl is, but I think it’s safe to assume that it’d be her daughter) are chilling and enough to make you dislike her from the get-go.

The “antagonist”, Lily (Mila Kunis), is your normal 20-something girl enjoying life with Ballet being more of a hobby, rather than her passion. Definitely not your stereotypical, overly- disciplined ballerina. I say “antagonist” with quotations because the negativity that is reflected in Lily’s character are the deep, dark projections of Nina (Natalie Portman).

Finally, the company director, Thomas (Vincent Cassel), is the character that seems to play a big part in pushing Nina over the edge. I must say this, however, that I think he is innocent in whatever he does because it is his job as a director to break Nina out of her perfect world so she can play the Black Swan better and he does what he thinks is necessary to get the job done.

When the movie begins, Nina is already evident with signs of her deep-seated emotional problems. She is a 20-something year old living in an 8 year old girl’s bedroom. Right off the bat, the co-dependent and unhealthy relationship between Nina and her mother is noticeable. Her mother dresses and undresses her like she is a child. She has no privacy. To top it all of, she has nothing else outside of Ballet. Signs of Nina’s psychological imbalance begin to manifest when Thomas tells her that she is the perfect White Swan but fails miserably when it comes to the Black Swan. In another scene, he praises Lily’s dancing ability and encourages Nina to learn from her. This is the point where Lily becomes the target of Nina’s negative projections. During the entire movie, Nina tries to awaken the Black Swan within herself to better play the part in the Ballet. As an unfortunate turn of events, the Black Swan begins to appear but as another woman who is herself, to complete this enigmatic out-of-body transformation she undergoes.

The scratching and the self mutilation. This is the sign of the Black Swan within her attempting to awaken and a way for her subconscious telling her that she has it in herself to play the part, that she isn’t the “sweet girl” that her mother would have her believe she is.

Finally, the parallel nature of the climax of the movie that plays along with the opening day showing of the Swan Lake Ballet is just beautiful and ingenious.

Nina is definitely, a victim of a psychological disorder and her personality could be much better dissected by a psychologist. Too bad, that’s not me haha.

I’ve been wanting to do this post for a few days now but haven’t found the time to. My busy schedule makes me question my ability to dedicate myself to this blog but so far so good!

Anyway, let’s begin by reminding ourselves of the last few scenes of the movie.

Arun (Aamir Khan) comes to the ending of Yasmeen’s (Kriti Malhotra) third video-letter to her brother. Her face is touched with agony, her tone is grave and her words are decisive but apologetic. She asks for understanding and forgiveness from her brother and family. It is obvious what she is planning to do.

The portrayal of Arun’s relationship with Yasmeen is a beautiful one. This woman that he has never met in real life teaches him to appreciate the intricate beauties in life. Yasmeen’s own life is so tormented and full of deceit, yet her innocence and love for all things beautiful is apparent. She becomes Arun’s muse and he, once again, learns to be happy and enjoy life. Even Shai (Monica Dogra) points out at one point that he seems happier. These videos of a woman that could’ve lived even ten years before him in that apartment becomes a cathartic experience for him.

The next time we see Arun, he is sitting on his couch with his eyes closed and is in complete distress over Yasmeen’s final words. He opens his eyes, and once again, his eyes fall upon the hook in the ceiling and the frayed piece of rope on it. These were amongst the first things he had noticed when he first moves into that apartment. The shock and emotions that overtake Arun as all the pieces fall into place are so human that I couldn’t help being moved. Arun runs out of his apartment and is overwhelmed by tears. The juxtaposition of his silent and un-moving neighbor that looks upon him as he cries is very strong. This seemingly emotion-less man who is overcome by such emotion and a frail, lonesome woman whose years of difficulty are written into each line of her face are the only two people in this powerful scene.

Next, Arun is seen at the beach, thoughtfully turning over Yasmeen’s ring and necklace in his hands. We can only assume that he tossed it into the water, symbolizing the letting-go of his own emotional afflictions.

The consequent scene is of Munna (Prateik Babbar) at his brother’s funeral, Salim (Danish Hussain). For me, this signified the burial of two things; Yasmeen’s story and Munna’s love for Shai. Also, a realization by the two men that life is short. This is also the pivotal scene where we realize that Munna is now a changed man. He is no longer the dhobi with the boy-ish charm but, rather, a man who is ready to take on the responsibility of his younger brother and mother. We see him pack up all his things and move his family into a bigger place to live. We see him approach a man about wanting any role, no matter how small, in a movie.

Arun moves into a newer apartment. As he looks out the window of his new apartment we see that it is far removed from the main city of Mumbai, whereas previously, he had specifically wanted a place that was right in the middle of it. Once he is moved into his new apartment, we see him unpack his new painting and admire it. Something we have never seen Arun do; admire his own art work. At this point, I think it is safe to say that Arun has a new appreciation for life.

Jumping to the final scene of the movie; Munna rips out Arun’s address from his book and hands it to Shai. She is shocked that he has it because of his earlier insinuation that Arun probably went back to Australia to his ex-wife and child. Soon, Shai comes to a realization and we see a tear roll down her face as she balls up the address in her hand. Munna tearing out that page signifies him cutting off all ties with Arun, and maybe even Shai. Shai realizes the finality of this but also becomes aware of her own feelings towards Munna. That, after all, getting information about Arun wasn’t the reason she had wanted to spend time with Munna but, that she actually enjoyed spending time with him. Munna walks away with an elusive smile on his face; satisfied with choosing his ambition and family over his love for Shai.